Chemotherapy for bone cancer
Chemotherapy uses drugs to destroy cancer cells. These drugs target rapidly dividing cells throughout the whole body. This means that chemotherapy kills cancer cells but it can also damage healthy cells.
With most types of chemotherapy, the drugs travel through the blood to reach and destroy cancer cells all over the body, including cells that may have broken away from the primary tumour. This is described as systemic therapy.
Most people with bone cancer have chemotherapy. If you have chemotherapy, your healthcare team will use what they know about the cancer and about your health to plan the drugs, doses and schedules.
Chemotherapy may be the only treatment you have or it may be used along with other cancer treatments. You may have chemotherapy to:
- shrink a tumour before surgery (called neoadjuvant chemotherapy)
- destroy cancer cells left behind after surgery and reduce the risk that the cancer will come back (recur) (called adjuvant chemotherapy)
- treat cancer that can’t be removed with surgery or has spread (metastasized) to other parts of the body
Chemotherapy drugs commonly used for bone cancer
The most common chemotherapy drugs for bone cancer include:
- cisplatin
- doxorubicin
- ifosfamide
- vincristine
The most common chemotherapy drug combinations used for bone cancer are:
- MAP – high-dose methotrexate, cisplatin and doxorubicin
- CISPDOXO – cisplatin and doxorubicin
- VDC/IE – vincristine, doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide, alternated with ifosfamide and etoposide
If bone cancer recurs or has metastasized, the following drugs may be used:
- gemcitabine
- docetaxel
- cyclophosphamide
- topotecan
All chemotherapy drugs used for bone cancer are given
Side effects
Side effects of chemotherapy will depend mainly on the drug, dose, how it’s given and your overall health. Tell your healthcare team if you have these side effects or others you think might be from chemotherapy. The sooner you tell them of any problems, the sooner they can suggest ways to help you deal with them.
Some common side effects of chemotherapy drugs used for bone cancer are:
Find out more about chemotherapy
Find out more about chemotherapy and side effects of chemotherapy. To make the decisions that are right for you, ask your healthcare team questions about chemotherapy.
Details on specific drugs change regularly. Find out more about sources of drug information and where to get details on specific drugs.
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